This invention relates to apparatus for the lubrication of a bearing ring mounted on a rotary drum casing which is movable in the peripheral direction relative thereto, and is supported by support plates affixed to the rotary drum casing at regular intervals.
Bearing rings of the type described are used on rotary kilns, cooling drums, drying drums and other rotary drums. These rings, known as loose bearing rings, are disposed with a predetermined play on support plates on the rotary drum casing, and can move in the peripheral direction relative to the rotary drum casing, i.e. they "wander". This movement of the bearing ring relative to the rotary drum casing can result in wear and damage to the contacting parts. In order to prevent this, the bearing rings are lubricated.
For the lubrication of these bearing rings it is known to use grease, grease pastes or powdered graphite, or mixtures thereof. The lubrication process is usually carried out manually. Here difficulties arise in reaching the parts and surfaces which are to be lubricated, especially with hot rotary kilns and drums. For this purpose the rotary drums are usually temporarily stopped, and apart from the difficulty of the work, this entails undesirable shut down periods for the rotary drums. With hot rotary drums, it has also been found that because of the high temperature the lubricating greases liquefy and flow way, or are burned to solid residues. In addition the lubricants can vaporise at high temperatures, resulting in unhealthful and partly inflammable clouds of vapour. Also liquid lubricants running away cause undesired soiling of the rotary drum casing. If in order to simplify the lubricating procedure, lubricant conduits and nipples for lubrication with grease guns were provided, this would lead to undesirably high expenditure, without satisfactorily overcoming the defects mentioned above. In addition the application of pure powdered graphite also involves considerable difficulties.